Woodberry's History of Wood-Engraving

MR. WOODBERRY makes generous acknowledgment to Professor Charles Eliot Norton, without whose aid and counsel he declares that his book ¹ could not have been written ; but it should not be inferred from this that there is, in his treatment of the history of wood-engraving, any lack of individuality and independence. Far from that, a principal charm of this volume lies in the fact that it is characterized by a clear sight, and a comprehensiveness not thwarted by undue bias in favor of one theory or one master, although we feel the personality of the author in his writing, and are agreeably aware of his preferences. Only at one or two points

is he pursued, and to some extent ensnared, by the old, haunting idea which takes possession of so many persons, that limits must be set, beyond which no achievement, however skillful and refined, however artistic or gratifying to the eye, can be reckoned as legitimate. It may be admitted that Holbein made his work with the graver the highest exemplar of what may be wisely? attempted on the original basis of wood-engraving; but it does not follow that there should be no new departures, no variations or adventurings in new paths. Mr. Woodberry says of Holbein, “ He perceived more clearly than Dürer the essential conditions under which wood-engraving must be practiced. ... If he had needed crosshatching, fine and delicate lines, harmonies of tone, and soft transitions of light, he would have had recourse to copperplate; but not finding them necessary, he contented himself with the bold outlines, easily cut and easily printed, which were the peculiar province of wood-engraving.” Now, when the province of an art is spoken of, critics are too ready to forget that this may include several departments; or that the province may annex to itself other territories, and become a kingdom or a republic, having various sovereignties within itself. There are those who insist that the methods of Jean-François Millet in painting are unjustifiable, and would like to carry all painting back to the careful definition of detail in Veronese ; people who admire some accessory, put in by an apprentice, perhaps, in the picture of a great Italian, more than the best work of a modern master, equally devout and equally truthful, but approaching things from a point of view wholly different. Victor Hugo was for a long time denounced as not writing French, simply because he gave a new direction to the language in its use for fiction ; and it is but a little while since Richard Wagner was bitterly opposed by a large class, for his abandonment of melody. In the same way, Mr. Woodberry speaks with dissatisfaction of the recent tendency of engraving towards “refining or abandoning line.” It is true, as was said in our notice of Mr. Linton’s History of Wood-Engraving in America, that lines are to the engraver what words are to the poet; but the question whether he has put meaning into them can he decided only by a broad and sympathetic mode of interpretation, and not by a single rigid canon. The engraver must be granted a fair choice of ways in which he shall impart significance, like that which the poet enjoys. It is hypercritical to condemn him for employing the same texture on different surfaces in one composition, so long as he

does not vitiate the truthfulness of his effect by so doing ; and if he wishes occasionally to mimic the brush-marks of the designer, there seems to be no sound artistic principle forbidding him thus to attest the fact which we all know, that he is reproducing a picture. The engraver is not really enslaved to the draughtsman by the new system, for he is often called upon to interpret passages in his own way. Still, on the whole, he is subordinate, and occupies the relation of the musical virtuoso to the composer. But it is difficult to maintain that there should not be a body of reproducing engravers, and that they may not have as distinct an artistic value as the originators, like Holbein and William Blake and Mr. Linton; a value as proper to wood-engraving, too, though it may not be as high. Nor can we see how even an originator, if he chose to adopt the modern style, would prove himself false to the true aims of the art. In the new movement, however, we must expect many extravagances and weaknesses, along with the good attained. Our illustrated magazines furnish multitudinous examples of manifestly absurd choice of texture, obscuration of form, useless blindness, and flatness of effect; and Mr. Woodberry must he thanked for protesting against these, notwithstanding that he is somewhat affected by a conservatism which, if obeyed, might hold wood-engraving in a state of stagnation. in a work of this kind it is impossible to do justice to individuals by the selection of specimens of their work; but it strikes us as unfortunate for the completeness of the last chapter that there should be no example given of Mr. Anthony, Mr. Henry Marsh, or Mr. Linton, who are appreciatively mentioned. A more serious omission, perhaps, is the failure to include even a solitary cut of the modern French engravers. Taken altogether, nevertheless, the illustrations afford much reason for satisfaction. They constitute an abundant, progressive, and useful series. In his text, Mr. Woodberry groups the divisions of the subject with excellent judgment. There is first a chapter on the origin of the art and the “ holy prints ; ” then the block-books, and early printed books at the North, and early Italian engraving on wood are surveyed. The history is carried on swiftly, but without any slurring, through the period of Dürer and Holbein to the rapid decline and extinction of the art, after scarcely three centuries of growth ; and finally the revival, which in England was led by Bewick, towards the end of the last century, and the recent development in America are chronicled. Generally Mr. Woodberry’s style is at-

tractive, and contributes much to the charm of his exposition : he is suave and observes a becoming leisure; yet he wastes no time, and he is both forcible and eloquent when he is bestowing admiration, or has a lesson to inculcate. The purpose of arranging that which is essential to a just knowledge of the subject in a popular form, but with all the virtue of a ripe cultivation, is eminently well carried out, and is assisted by a list of the chief works on wood-engraving, at the end. Its temperate, discriminating tone, and the thoroughness of the review it gives from the earliest to the latest moment of the art, make the volume a very useful addition to one important alcove of literature.